GURPS Stalker Wiki
Categories Weapons Armor Load-Bearing Gear Artifacts Items Factions Anomalies Setting The Chernobyl Zone of Alienation, usually just called The Zone, is a 60 kilometer area of exclusion surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, a nation in Eastern Europe. It stretches between the borders of Ukraine and Belarus, and is guarded by the Ukrainian Army. The majority of the human structures in the Zone have since been reclaimed by nature, leaving most of it abandoned except for the wildlife. However, stalkers maintain a human presence. The Zone of Alienation began when the Chernobyl NPP suffered a catastrophic meltdown on April 26, 1986. Reactor 4 exploded, spreading mass radiation and forcing the depopulation of the surrounding area (including the entire city of Pripyat). However, the disaster was not merely a nuclear meltdown. In reality, the remote area had been used by Soviet scientists for top secret research on the noosphere, the psychic field that binds Earth’s life forms together. The city of Limansk-13 was one of these top secret research centers, with the nuclear power plant’s reactor providing power for experimentation and hiding the secret equipment used in it. Eventually, the energy of one of the experiments became too great and the power plant suffered a meltdown. The USSR evacuated all neighboring settlements, with only a handful of die-hards remaining in the irradiated wastes. Ironically, the newfound isolation was a great boon to the scientists on the noosphere project and their work doubled. Even the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 did nothing to stop the experimentation, as the scientists continued their work independently with the weakened Ukrainian government unable to discover them. The team was noble, desiring to control the noosphere on a global scale to totally eliminate war, conflict, and injustice. The Zone remained mostly quiet until 2001, when a bus full of tourists disappeared into it and the Ukrainian government barred civilian access. Everything came to a head on April 12, 2006. The scientists spent two hours on March 4 performing a global experiment, only to shut it down. Trying again weeks later, the experiment ripped a hole in the noosphere and allowed it to directly affect the biosphere. The laws of physics in the Zone were broken and strange phenomena began to manifest. While half of the scientists saw the error of their ways and broke off to form Clear Sky, a group dedicated to stopping the experimentation, the remainder joined their minds into a Common Consciousness so that they could suppress and control the noosphere. While they succeeded, the C-Consciousness had to periodically release excess psychic energy to avoid being consumed; on June 10, 2006, they performed the first emission (or “blowout”). The Zone expanded 5 kilometers while all unprepared military and scientific personnel outdoors were obliterated. Looking to protect themselves, the scientists created a defense perimeter: the Brain Scorcher, an experimental psi-antenna located outside Pripyat. Unprepared stalkers who came too close to the installation would have their minds damaged and be turned into C-Consciousness agents. They formed their agents into Monolith, a fanatical religious order totally devoted to protecting the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Stalkers were lured deeper into the Zone by rumors of “wish granters” and untold riches to be mind wiped into loyal servants, while Monolith squads raided stalker camps and defended laboratories to protect the secret. In 2007, the Ukrainian government began sending the military into the Zone to try and reconnoiter the strange situation. The majority of the squads were killed by the anomalies and mutated wildlife and humans that now inhabited the Zone, warped by the rift in the noosphere. The stalker phenomenon grew, until an estimated 300 individuals were living in the Zone by 2010 and selling artifacts and recovered technology. This only increased until the military and stalkers had their first clash in 2011, leading to the military enacting a shoot-on-sight policy for all intruders. Eventually, a stalker going by Strelok (or “Shooter”) and his group penetrated the center of the Zone. This triggered the second largest emission after the first one, expanding the Zone another 5 kilometers. Strelok penetrated the power plant a second time, and the resulting emission (and Monolith raids) destroyed the Clear Sky faction and wiped Strelok’s mind; he would be ironically ordered to kill himself by the C-Consciousness that failed to recognize him. This is where the campaign picks up, on May 1, 2012. As far as any stalkers are concerned, the idea of penetrating the nuclear power plant is a legend. Hundreds or even thousands of stalkers reside in the Zone and even more individuals make short trips into it, with the corrupt military often letting them through and participating in the artifact and weapons trade. And somewhere out there, Strelok is still trying to accomplish his suicidal goal and find his way back to the C-Consciousness…. Latest activity Photos and videos are a great way to add visuals to your wiki. Add one below! Category:Browse